Elena's relationship with Damon progressed like this for weeks—comfortable banter, intense attraction, and spending more time together naked than clothed. The sneaking around at the office, weekend sleepovers, and texting continued despite the risks of being caught.

No matter how much they were together, it was never enough. Elena craved more of Damon—of them. Her heart and mind were fighting a battle—stop letting him get close, stop letting him in—but she didn't. She couldn't.

She knew she had broken down his walls and walked right into his heart. Something she tried to get a handle on, but she was afraid she was no longer in control.

Elena had gained little information and she was starting to wonder if it was worth it. Worth breaking Damon's heart, shattering her, and exposing who she really was.

She walked into his office and set another coffee on his desk. He was on a conference call, so she made sure to stay quiet. He mouthed, 'thank you' and continued his call. Her father's files were sitting on his desk. She knew she had to do something.

Damon was not looking at her. He was concentrating on the conference call. She quickly grabbed the files from his desk and walked out.

She had overheard his phone conversation with his father last night while they laid in bed. He thought she was passed out, but she wasn't. She had heard every word.

"I want to work on some old cases. I think it would be good for press."

Damon stayed quiet while his father spoke, but from the excitement in his voice, it was easy to assume his father agreed.

"I want to look into cases over five years old. Get some fresh eyes on them and see if I can follow up on anything. Imagine if a breakthrough exposes a case that was never solved. The press would go crazy. Not to mention, branching out would be next."

"Yeah, yeah." He listened to his father speak some more. "I'm going to start with the ones you personally worked on," he stated with amusement, "just to see if I can find anything."

He laughed with his father, obviously joking around with him, but Elena knew for a fact his father worked on her father's case.

This was her chance.

She slammed the files on her desk. She scattered them until she spotted the Gilbert, #178376 on a thick manila folder. Everything they used in her father's case was locked up in evidence, but this was a general run down of everything they found and how they had come up empty-handed. She peeked out of her office before tiptoeing to the transcripts room.

She tapped her foot anxiously as she photocopied everything. There were a good one hundred plus papers, but she was not leaving until every piece had been scanned.

After lunch, she placed the files back into his office all neatly organized. Damon had a lunch meeting downtown and told her to order something if she wanted.

She ate her Chinese takeout while reading over scripts of her father's case—trying to make sense out of anything that happened that day.

Damon was gone the majority of the afternoon. He had texted her several times apologizing for the delay and finally told her she could go home if she wanted. Considering there wasn't much for her to do without him, she left the building.

Elena started walking down the hall towards the elevator when one of the reporters stopped her.

"Hi."

"Um, hi."

"So, you are Mr Salvatore's weekend fling, huh?" He licked his lips, as his eyes looked her up and down. Elena shuddered with disgust.

"I'm his intern, Elena. Who are you?" she scowled.

"Oh, my apologies." He put a hand to his chest, pretending to act sincere. "I'm Mr Parker. You can call me Kai." He continued eyeing her. "I just wanted to meet you."

"Great. Well, now that you have, I need to get going."

He looked at his watch, confused. "It is not five 'o clock yet. I believe that is when you are allowed to leave."

"Actually, Damon is running late from a lunch meeting and said I could leave."

"Damon?" His eyebrows rose in suspicion.

Elena cleared her throat quickly. "Mr Salvatore." She swallowed as Kai flashed a cocky grin. He was a complete creep.

"Do we have another Katherine on our hands?"

Elena raised her eyebrows in question. "Who?"

"Oh, Damon hasn't told you?" Kai asked, amused.

"Clearly, he hasn't if I just asked who she was," Elena snapped back. "Excuse me, you are in my way." She tried to walk around him, but Kai stepped in front of her again.

"She almost took this entire company down. Piece by piece, she dug her greedy little fingers into Damon and stole insider information. The moment she went public with it, it almost ruined us for good. Not to mention what it did to Damon."

Elena's eyes glazed over at Kai's words. She had no idea. Of course, how would she? Damon had never told her. She had never asked about his previous girlfriends. She only knew about his modelling career based off the search she did beforehand.

"Well…thanks for the info. I'm not sure why you felt the need to tell me, but now I'm really leaving."

Anger—at herself—fuelled her power to push Kai hard enough and out of her way. He gasped and reached out for her, but she was already two feet ahead of him and fleeing to the elevator.

x x x

Damon checked his watch constantly as he sat in his lunch meeting that ran three hours over. He had normally scheduled his conferences for during the week, but Mr Walter flew in specifically for him.

He had invited Elena over that night. Although, he saw her that morning, he had already missed her—missed touching and kissing her. He hadn't ever missed a girl like that before. Never.

No matter how many times he had seen her, it was never enough. He wanted more. More of her. Everything inside him screamed to stop—stop letting her get close, stop letting her in.

But he didn't. He couldn't.

He had let her sledgehammered his thick walls, stepped over the debris, and got right under his skin. Something he swore she wouldn't do again after his life was almost destroyed before, but he didn't feel in control of it anymore. His heart had completely taken over, ignoring all the flashing red warning signs around him.

He and Elena had fallen into a comfortable routine—cooking dinner, foreplay, eating dinner, and ended up either on the living room floor, the shower, or in his bed.

Damon woke up the next morning with his arms and legs wrapped up in Elena. Her back was pressed against his chest and all he could think about was how breathtakingly beautiful she was. Her hair was spread wildly on the pillow and her bare skin glowed in the sunlight that was shining through the windows. Her face looked soft and pure as it relaxed against his arm that was wrapped under her. She looked absolutely…stunning.

Elena was an addiction he never knew he wanted, a feeling of never having enough, never touching enough, never smiling enough. She had made him that person. That love-sick puppy dog that craved her like his last meal. That person he swore he would never be—that person he never wanted to be.

Elena startled awake, and he instinctively wrapped her in closer to him, not wanting to let her go.

"Good morning." Damon kissed her shoulder softly. "Did you sleep well?"

"Mm hmm," she moaned, squirming against him. "I don't even remember falling asleep…..."

He smiled lightly. "You passed out pretty quickly after—"

"Oh, my god…my body. My legs," she interrupted. "They feel like jelly."

He rubbed a hand up and down her arm. "Sorry about that." He grinned.

Elena turned around, not even self-conscious about the sheet falling off her exposed chest. "You are so not." She smirked.

"Well, you are very flexible, baby. Perhaps you just need more practice."

She slapped his chest and wrinkled her nose—the most adorable thing she did. "I don't think my body could handle more practice. I think it needs rest. And perhaps a massage." Her eyes lit up, signalling exactly what she wanted.

Damon leaned down and kissed the tip of her nose. "I would love to, but I'm out of lotion."

She burst out laughing and it took Damon a moment to think about what was so funny.

"Oh, my god…no…not…stop laughing," he laughed with her. "That sounded really bad."

"Sorry," she apologized, continuing to laugh. "I hang out with really immature guys. It is not my fault I find that funny."

"Wait…you hang out with guys?" Damon narrowed his eyebrows at her, only teasing, but wanting to know the truth.

"Yes…is that a problem?" she countered.

He cupped her breast aggressively making her wince. "Not at all." He grinned. "As long as they are gay."

Damon shifted on top of her and kissed the corner of her mouth. She smiled weakly, keeping her eyes closed.

"You like that?"

"Yes."

"Oh, my god!" A high-pitched squeal made Damon rolled off from Elena. His eyes widened at the sight of his parents in his bedroom doorway.

He grabbed the sheet and quickly covered them up. Elena frantically pressed back against him shielding her naked body from his parents' eyes.

"What are you doing here?" Damon scolded. Elena covered her heated face with one hand, keeping her head down. Her cheeks heated as her eyes closed in humiliation.

"You never showed up for brunch," Lillian scowled. "We were worried about you when you didn't answer your phone."

"After the tenth time calling you," Giuseppe added in.

"Can you please give me a minute to get dressed? I will meet you in my office."

Lillian clenched her pearls as she flashed Damon a disapproving look. Giuseppe grabbed the door handle and pushed them both back into the hallway. Damon waited until the door clicked before finally exhaling.

"I am so sorry."

Elena uncovered her face finally. "Well, there is always a first time for everything. Getting caught by your parents." She swung her legs off the bed and began looking for her clothes.

"Are you angry?" Damon sat up and watched as she frantically searched for her clothes that he knew were lying on his living room floor.

"No, I'm just embarrassed."

"I know. And I'm so sorry. I should have remembered to call them and let them know I wasn't coming. I will go speak to them and ask them to leave. Okay?" He grabbed a pair of shorts and shirt from the closet. "Your clothes are in the living room, by the way." He kissed her gently on the forehead before heading out to deal with his parents.

Damon brushed a hand through his hair as he prepared for a lecture for missing Sunday brunch.

He closed the office door behind him as he leaned back against it. Both of his parents were standing and staring at him—practically glaring daggers in his direction.

"It's not what you think—"

"It is exactly what we think," Lillian huffed, cutting Damon off. "Is she another Katherine?"

"No! She isn't like that at all. She is not just a one-night stand," he defended. "You met her already," Damon reminded his mother.

"Yes, but after what happened last time, your dates don't usually last longer than one night."

"Thanks for making me sound like a bastard." Damon crossed his arms in disbelief. Most parents would approve of their son being in a relationship.

"We are still dealing with Katherine," Lillian reminded her son. "What did we tell you?"

"Lillian," Giuseppe warned, but she ignored him.

"Did you at least do a background check on her? Make sure she is not another one?"

"Oh, my god…" Damon groaned, brushing a firm hand through his hair. "Not every girl is going to be like Katherine. Elena is not like that."

"And how do you know, Damon? You need to be careful. You aren't just a typical guy—"

"Yes, I know." Damon rolled his eyes at the same lecture his mother had been giving him for two years. "She is an intern," he spitted out needing to get her off his case. "My intern."

Giuseppe's eyes widened. "Your intern?"

"Yes, but it's not like that," Damon said quickly.

"Do you have any idea what you are doing, Damon?" Giuseppe scowled. "Apparently you aren't ready, son, putting the company at risk. Not to mention breaking a hundred company rules."

"It's not like that," Damon said again more firmly. "She isn't Katherine. I have checked her out already. She attends the University of Virginia. She is a senior and is graduating this semester."

Lillian walked towards Damon and placed a hand on his cheek, her eyes finally went soft. "Just be careful, son."

Giuseppe followed suit and didn't even look Damon in the eye as Damon stepped out of the way for them to leave.

Damon exhaled as he heard his front door closing. Flustered, he paced the floor until he regulated his breathing. This couldn't have been worst timing.

"Elena?" he called out as he walked down the hallway back to his room. "They are gone now. It is safe to come out." But there was no respond. "Elena?"

Damon pushed his bedroom door open and looked around, but Elena wasn't in here. "Elena?" He called out again with fear laced in his voice.

He ran to the door and whipped it open to see that her car was gone.

She left.

Thank you for the support and kind reviews so far. I'm still trying to catch up with the writing so there will be delay in updating the chapters. Please be patient and keep watching the space:)